Man Who Bought Guns Used in Shootings Was Related to Gunman

Enrique Marquez, who bought rifles for San Bernardino gunman Syed Farook, had ties to killer’s family by marriage: documents.

A garage door of Enrique Marquez’s home is seen broken in a recent FBI raid, Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015, in Riverside, Calif. The man who reportedly purchased a pair of assault-style rifles used by terrorist gunman Syed Farook and his wife in a mass execution was also tied to the killer’s family by marriage, documents show.The former neighbor who supplied the assault-style weapons to the San Bernardino killers is related to them by marriage and recently told a friend that there were Muslims nearby “ready to go haywire,” according to reports.

Authorities have said Enrique Marquez, an old friend and relative of San Bernardino attacker Syed Farook, purchased two assault rifles used in last week’s fatal shooting that killed 14 people. (AP Photo/Jae C. Enrique Marquez was wed on Nov. 29, 2014, to Russian bride Mariya Chernykh — whose sister Tatiana was married three years earlier to Syed’s brother Raheel Farook. Enrique Marquez, whose home was raided over the weekend and who is being questioned by federal investigators, was married last year to Mariya Chernykh, whose sister is the wife of Raheel Farook, brother of one of the shooters, Syed Rizwan Farook. Stone, a friend of Marquez from the local punk scene, told ABC News that his friend had told him something a few months ago that he now sees in a new light. “He said something along the lines of, ‘There’s a lot of Muslims in our own back yard, just ready to go haywire and attack,’” Stone said. “And we didn’t think nothing of it.

Farook, the US-born son of Pakistani immigrants, and Malik, who was born in Pakistan and spent much of her life in Saudi Arabia, died in a shootout with police several hours after the attack in San Bernardino, about 60 miles (100 km) east of Los Angeles. He was drunk, so I don’t know.” Marquez, described by several neighbors as a good friend of Farook, bought the two .223-caliber rifles legally, according to the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Raheel Farook, the older brother and who became the brother-in-law of Marquez, served in the US Navy, joining in 2003 shortly after graduating from high school. Employees at a Walmart in Corona, Calif., 20 minutes by car from Riverside, said Marquez has been working there as an asset protection and customer specialist for about six months. Authorities believe the weapons — purchased legally in 2011 or 2012 — were bought by Marquez to keep his friend’s name off the paperwork, reported ABC News.

Marquez, who had checked himself into a psychiatric facility after the shooting, was questioned by the feds after they raided his home in Riverside on Saturday. The FBI has labeled the killings a terrorist attack and investigators are also trying to determine if Farook had abandoned plans to launch an attack in 2012, according to two people familiar with the investigation who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Witnesses to the marriage were Mariya’s sister, Tatiana Farook, and Tatiana’s husband, Raheel Farook. “I saw no sign of him having a wife – it was only his mom in the house,” said Lori Aguirre, who lives across the street and said she knew Marquez because he sometimes drove her son to and from school. Marquez, whose security guard license in California expired last year, had worked at Wal-Mart since May, but has since been fired, spokesman Brian Nick said.

A third neighbor, however, said he had seen Marquez with a woman. “I don’t know if they were legally married, but I saw him with someone,” said the neighbor, who also declined to be named. Ashlee Sims, 25, a security guard at the Walmart, on Sunday described Marquez as “weird” and “awkward.” He is quiet, but likes to go out and party, Sims said. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Sunday, days after the woman’s driver’s license was shared on national television during a media swarm into the family’s home. Viviana Ramirez, 23, a fellow student with Marquez at Riverside Community College, told the Los Angeles Times they bonded over a mutual desire to join the military.

Raheel Farook is a Navy veteran, serving from 2003 to 2007 and earning the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, among other awards. Tommy Lopez, who said he became friends with Marquez after meeting at a punk rock show seven months ago, said he never talked about his wife and was not religious.